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A look back at 25 years of the Hammers
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12 years. That was how long the county of Essex went without speedway since the unfortunate demise of Rayleigh, Romford and West Ham. Experienced speedway promoter Wally Mawdsley and Stock Car promoter Chick Woodroffe, who was already staging banger racing at the Arena-Essex raceway, decided to bring speedway to the Purfleet venue.
The Arena raceway was established in May, 1978 when former racer Chick Woodroffe opened the doors to the public. Five years later, Woodroffe contacted experienced speedway administrator Peter Thorogood - last seen at Crayford - and it was agreed that National League speedway racing would be added to the motor racing bill. Thorogood spent the remainder of that year cutting out a track on the tarmac-based circuit.
Although seen by many as a gamble, it did appear as though the duo had chosen the right location as it was in a perfect position for the existing and potential speedway public in Essex - many of whom had been lost to the sport. It was hoped that some fans of the defunct Crayford Kestrels, just across the river Thames, would also make the trip now that their team had moved to Hackney's Waterden Road track. The Kestrels, in fact, had been in opposition to the opening of the operation at Arena until they closed at the end of 1983.
The team was called Arena-Essex and the team nickname - Hammers - was taken from the old West Ham side.
But one of the first decisions that was taken was also one of the most controversial - the track would not have a safety fence. Being positioned inside the stock car circuit - similar to the Foxhall Heath circuit at Ipswich - meant that the tarmac track would act as a runoff area for the speedway circuit. As time told it turned out to be a very safe track - although some supporters and riders alike felt it lacked something because of it - most notably the Hackney captain Barry Thomas who was a fierce critic.
Local independent radio station Essex Radio signed a deal to become team sponsors to the new side while colourful sppedway commentator Dave Lanning was handed the announcers mike.
Along with the excitement and stress of setting up a new venue for Speedway in 1984, the new Arena Essex promotion found themselves struggling to put together a competitive team. Alan Sage signed from the closed Crayford operation but his former team-mate Laurie Etheridge eventually declined to join Arena, after having signed a contract. Bob Humphreys was persuaded to come back after two years of retirement in his place. Hammers originally looked to Exeter loanee Kevin Price or John Grahame to pick up the third heat leader role, with David Smart, Jeremy Luckhurst and Mark Summerfield making up the rest of the team. As backup, Hammers also had on their books Peter Nightingale, Greg Williamson and Martin Goodwin.
The first meeting of the new era of speedway in Essex was held on Thursday 5th April - The Essex Championship won by Rye House's small track specialist Bob Garrad.
The team looked weak and early season results confirmed this as the Hammers lost at home to Canterbury and Rye House in challenge fixtures. Australian Bill Barrett was brought in to replace the injured Price and the Hammers picked up their first ever win in the home KO Cup match against Peterborough. Before Hammers opening National League meeting against Boston, the promotion signed Peter Johns on loan from Wimbledon and released Price, Nightingale, Grahame and Williamson. The seven who lined up against the Barracudas (Sage, Humphreys, Barrett, Johns, Goodwin, Smart, Luckhurst) were to form the basis of the Hammers team for most of the season. Unfortunately, the team continued losing and it was not until 24th May, after 5 NL defeats that Arena narrowly beat Glasgow 40-38 at Purfleet.
Peter Thorogood continued to look for ways to strengthen the team and youngsters Neville Tatum (from Canterbury), Stephen Collins (the fifth brother from the famous speedway family), Ian Humphreys (from Weymouth) and Rob Steman joined the Hammers junior ranks as possible aspirants for team places. The significant move, however, came in August when Arena signed young Australian prospect Dave Cheshire, who scored 8 points in his debut as Hammers raced to their biggest win of the season, 51-27 over Berwick.
Cheshire made the difference to the Hammers side and, although he did not always hit the big scores, the confidence of the team was lifted and Arena managed to string together a sequence of home wins to haul themselves away from the foot of the table.
The Hammers slowly built up home track advantage - particularly against those visitors from larger home circuits, who would inevitably end up sliding past the small white 'boundary posts' onto the stock car track. This in turn led to a new definition for both fans who kept programmes and the speedway press alike - 'L' for 'Left Track' !
The Hammers even managed to draw at Glasgow and collected an away win in mid-September as they came back from Berwick with a 40-38 victory. There were more changes as the season came to a close as Jeremy Luckhurst was released to Canterbury and Keith Pritchard and Paul Fry came into the side on loan to cover for Barrett and Cheshire who had returned home to Australia.
The season was a resounding success on and off the track. Crowd levels were excellent and, despite poor early season form, more and more people came to see the Hammers as the season went on. The team had confounded the doom-and-gloom merchants who had predicted disaster by finishing in 14th place in the 16-team league - a creditable position for a team put together on slender resources. At the close of the year, the promotion and the riders could justifiably feel pleased with their efforts.
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